• There has been an expansion in the scope of practice with 47 states allowing podiatric physicians to perform rearfoot/ankle surgery.

With continuous changes such as these, and to allow podiatric surgeons to participate in the Part II examination in a timely manner, an expansion in current case selection was necessary. ABFAS formed a task force to examine the need to expand the case review categories. The ABFAS board of directors unanimously approved the recommendations of the task force, which state:

1) Candidates will log all surgical procedures in all categories (one through five). The candidate must log a minimum of 65 cases for eligibility to submit cases for review for foot surgery certification—similar to the 2016 exam cycle.

2) Thirty (30) out of the 65 logged cases must be in designated subcategories, shown below. Only cases logged in categories 2, 4, and 5 will be counted toward the minimum 30 procedures—different than the 2016 exam cycle as the list of cases is expanded to allow practitioners with an RRA focus to sit for the Foot Certification exam.

3) There will be a limit on maximum number of procedures in each sub-category that is used toward the “minimum 30 procedures.” The limits are based on complexity and/or degree of surgical skills for that specific procedure. For example, the maximum number of procedures that is eligible toward “minimum 30 procedures” under subcategory 2.2.1 Cheilectomy is 2, whereas the maximum number of procedures that is eligible toward the “minimum 30 procedures” for sub-category 2.2.6 MTPJ fusion is 15.

4) The RRA cases selected for review for Part II Foot certification process will not be available for the RRA portion of the Part II certification process.

Reminders: Please log ALL cases and continue to log even if you believe you have met the requirement. The PLS system will be able to show the status of your logged cases vs. the requirements, beginning in July 2016.
Expanded List of Categories for Case Review

Each category in “italics” has an allowable maximum of 2 of the 30 required cases.
Each category in “non-italics” has an allowable maximum of 15 of the 30 required cases.